According to 1 K 74^60 the following were also mode and set In the hf'kdl: (1) a golden altar, the altar of incense; (2) a table for the shewbread : (3) ten golden lampstaiids,^ five on the right side and five on the left ; (4) lamps for these ; (5) many other smaller things.
But these verses have all the appearance of being by a later hand, for the purpose of heightening the impression. In 1 K 6'^ tiie htkdl is s;iid to cont^iin the altar-like Uible, but there is no hint of anything besides being in this part of the house. Chronicles ») has, however, a parallel account to 1 K 7-**^. Jer 62'9 refers to ' lampstands ' d as taken by the Chaldaians, but in the parallel account of 2 K 25 nothing is said of lampstands. If, however, the writers of Jer 6-.;i9, 1 K 7-*B-fiO, and 2 Ch 4>y-"-a were under the influence of P, they would have spoken of one lampstand, such as obtains in P's tabernacle, and not of ten. There must have been some ground for the tradition of the ten lampstands. Probably these did exist — but brazen, not golden ones— in Solomon's temple, or they were added soon after, for there must have been some way of lighting the interior of the house. They would be kept burning day and night, as house lamps in the East are at the present day.j They might have been fixed upon pedestals, — the Eastern fashion,— but most likely they were set on the ten tables about which we read in 2 Ch 4**.x Keil, however, maintains that tliese tables were for the shewbread ; but 2 Ch 13^' 29^^! seem to show that there was but one such table.
Contents of the dShtr. — After the building of the temple was completed, the arkX was brought from the city of David at the south-east of the temple hill, and placed in the dibir, which, using the later name, is explained as the Holy of Holies./i It was carried by the priests, though, according to the older history of 2 S 6^^ priests were not con- sidered the only proper bearers of the ark.
The ark is said to have contained nothing except the two tables of the Law.» In David's time and Solomon's the ark seems to have been looked upon as involving in some way the I>i\ine presence. — as a kind of nrim4yii prtvsfns. Stade, lienz., Nowack, and many others think tliat the ark held originally a stoue which was considered to represent Jehovah, and that it was at a time later than Solomon's that it contained or was believed to contain the two tables of stone.
In He iH the pot of manna and Aaron's rod are said to have been in the ark.^ Nowhere else in the Bible is this said, though these articles are spoken of« as being laid up before the ark of the tabernacle. The writer of Hebrews haa on bis side the common belief of the later Kabbis.*'
Oversliadowing the ark were two huge cheru- bim,p each being 10 cubits high, i.e. exactly half as high as the ceiling of the debir. These had two wings apiece, eacii being 5 cubits broad. These wings were outstretched, the outer ones touching the walls, the inner ones reaching to each other. The four wings of 6 cubits eacli were stretched from wall to wall, extending along the whole width of 20 (=4x6) cubits. The ark had its place under the two inner wings. On the form and signilicance of these cherubim see Chkkubim.
« 1 K 6*ii» renders the lost part of this verse, 'And he fnat^ (not overlaid) an altar of cedar' : so LXX, Then., Benz. etc
^ iJer Teinp. Salom. I78f. y Der Temp. Salom. KW.
itUxis Ewald (GMcft. iii. 232). Thenius, Stade (ZATW Ui. p. IGSfT.), Nowack, Benzinger.
I Ezk 41-^A
C Not 'candlesticks.' The Bible knows nothing of *candle«' or of 'camllcstlcks.' Render lo all cases, in OT and In NT, 'lamps' and 'lampstands.*
n 2 Ch 411*^23. $ niiap.
< The light in the temple of Shlloh was kept burning during the night only (1 8 33).
m 'He made also ten tables, and placed them In the htkdl, five on the right side and five on the left '
X pit< 'chest'; n^n (an Kg\-i>tian woM), meaalng *a boUow ▼easel,' is the wonl for Noali's ark.
A* 1 K 8<1. > 1 K 8». { Mt$mTk,
• Ex lOSi-a* 2619, Nu 17">, Dt 10».
w Bm Aau. ^ 1 K 6»->B.
702
TEMPLE
TEMPLE
In 2 K 18* it is recorded that Hezekioh ' removed the hijh
E laces, and brake the pillars, and cut don-n the Asherah ; and e brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made ; for unto those oays the children of Israel did burn incense to it.' Where in the temple — if in it at all — this symbol of deity wris kept we have no mtimation. The brief notice is intereslinjr, however, as showing to how late a time the Israelites wor- shipped Jehovah in ^e form of some material object. See art.
NEHUsaiAS.
The rnvrt.a — Keil and the older authorities generally hold that there was an outer temple court j3 as well as an inner one.7 Wliat can be said for this view is well said by Keil in Der Tempel Salomos, p. 114 ff. So far, however, as the history and description of Solomon's temple are concerned, we know of but one temple court, the other courts mentioned not being temple courts at all. The epithet ' inner,' when employed to designate the temple court, gets its meaning from the fact that it was surrounded by the greater court, and formed, indeed, a part of the latter.5 This one court is called by the Chronicler the ' court of the priests,' e but under the influence of later ideas and usages Ezekiel was the first to think of reserving a court for the priests, and in the later temples his conception was carried out. It was owing to stricter notions of holiness, and the belief in a more urgent need for Jehovah to be approached through His appointed ministers, that God's house — the place where He dwelt — came to be safeguarded by a walled space into which priests alone could enter. But in Solomon's day and for a long time afterward such conceptions were un- known. No need was therefore thought to exist for more than one temple court.